Enter the world of Judge Dredd! Judges Stone, Parker, and Psi-Judge Asaji prepare to haul in some juves who beat a rival juve to death.
Want to read this from the beginning? CLICK HERE!
Parker used his tablet to pull up a schematic of the room they were about to enter.
The room had a narrow entranceway with a small bathroom to the left. Beyond the entrance was a medium-sized living space. Bedrooms with doors were to the right and left of the living space.
Windows in the back of the living space gave a view of the Meg-way just outside.
Each Judge quickly memorized the floorplan, then took up positions for hostile entry. Parker, Daystick at the ready, stood to the left of the door. Stone stood on the right with her Lawgiver at the ready.
Asaji stood across the hall in front of the door, her Lawgiver aimed at the door’s top hinge.
Parker pounded on the plasteen door. “Judges! Open up!”
No response. Parker went through the motion again. Still no response.
“You’re already looking at three years in the cubes for leaving a crime scene and fifteen for murder!” Parker said in his intimidating growl.
“Open this door in the next five seconds, or we’re adding another five years for obstructing arrest!”
No response.
Parker looked to Stone. She nodded; her knuckles were tight on the grip of her Lawgiver. She stepped three meters back from the door.
Parker moved to Asaji. Her mouth frowned under her helmet’s visor, but she gave the nod. He pattered her on the shoulder and stepped behind her.
The Judge’s carried a unique to them pistol called the Lawgiver. It fired multiple types of ammunition, selected through a simple voice command.
“High explosive,” Asaji said to the Lawgiver.
Asaji fired two quick rounds at the door’s hinges. The door flew inward, but its other side was jammed in the doorframe.
The sounds from the dual explosions echoed down the block’s hallway.
In the next instant, Parker charged the door, forcing it out of the frame and into the room. He dove to the floor. A bullet shot over his head and into the hallway.
Outside the room, when Parker went in, Asaji had taken a position on the left side of the door.
The bullet flew into the hallway, striking the door on the opposite side of the hall.
For the perp’s sake, the bullet stopped there. No extra charges for attempted murder.
Asaji switched her Lawgiver ammo to rubber bullets and swung into the room. Using what remained of the doorframe for cover, she scanned the area for the shooter.
“You okay, Parker?” Stone asked over their helmet commlink.
Parker pushed himself into the side bathroom. “Out of the line of fire!” Parker shot back over their commlink. “Waste this creep!”
The perp fired again, his shot going wide.
Stone flipped around the edge of the right side of the door. She quickly sized up the situation in the room. A standard execution round ripped through the shooter’s head.
“Nice shooting, Tex,” Asaji said.
Stone threw an annoyed glance at Asaji, and then cautiously entered the room. Asaji took up a position to cover her should another perp be dumb enough to raise their head.
“Judges entering!” Stone shouted. “Don’t be as dumb as your buddy with his brains on the carpet.”
Stone continued down the entrance hallway. As she passed the bathroom, Parker stood up with his Daystick and followed her. Asaji continued to cover them both with her Lawgiver.
“Hurry up! Go!”
“They’re not in position!”
“There’s no time!”
These were juve voices coming from inside the living space.
Stone pushed forward and entered the space. She found the three juves from the surveillance videos standing at an open window.
Two of the juves held up a third juve, the one wounded by the gunshot back in the park. They looked expectantly out the open window.
“Drop the body and get those hands up!” Stone ordered.
Asaji rushed into place, flanking Stone.
“Throw him!” one of the juves shouted.
Asaji fired a rubber bullet. She bounced it off one wall and then into one of the juves’s faces.
The brutal contact forced the juve to drop his wounded friend. It threw off the other Juve, who was trying to push the wounded juve out the window.
Instead, the wounded juve’s body slumped against the inside of the window sill.
With one juve on the ground and no threat of firearms, Parker charged at the remaining juve. The kid released his wounded friend, but not fast enough to avoid a taste of Daystick.
Parker pointed his Daystick at the juve Asaji had shot. The punk lay on his back, holding a bloody and broken nose and screaming like a dying animal from the pain.
“Stay down or get beat down punk,” Parker said.
The juve held up his hands in surrender. “Okay! Okay! We just wanted to get our boy to a street doc!”
“He wouldn’t need to go,” Stone began as she approached Parker and the juves, “if you hadn’t assaulted that rival juve.”
“That drokhead had it coming!” the other juve shouted.
Stone kicked the juve in the head, knocking him unconscious. “Didn’t ask your opinion. That’s an additional six months for resisting a judge.”
The broken nosed juve wanted to say something, but a look from Stone kept his mouth shut.
Parker stepped forward and slapped handcuffs on the broken nosed perp.
Stone noticed something outside the window. She walked over and addressed two sky surfers hovering nearby.
“Clear out or get cube time, punks!” Stone said, yelling to be heard over the Meg-way noise.
The sky surfers took the hint and flew away — after giving Stone a single finger salute.
“Stone to Control. Two sky surfers leaving Karl Urban block, floor one five zero, western side. Give them two years in the cubes for aiding in the escape of murderers.”
Asaji looked after the sky surfers. “Pretty harsh for an obscene gesture,” she said.
Stone turned to Asaji. “If they’d taken the wounded juve, who knows what else they’ve been working on with these punks?’
Asaji shrugged.
Stone turned to Parker, who was locking up the unconscious juve. “You have this under control?”
After Parker nodded, Stone said, “Asaji and I are going back to room one five zero two three three.”
A judge’s work is never done! What’s in Room 150233? Find out next Thursday!
With a little help from EN Publishing’s Judge Dredd RPG!
In addition to the Rebellion comic books “2000 AD” and “Judge Dredd Megazine,” I used EN Publishing’s “Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD” role-playing game to help put this together. Check them out!
